


All Pieces of a Whole

by Pemdas_24



Series: 1D Shorts [1]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: And sometimes those things bother him, Gen, Good thing Liam is around to listen just a bit, He sees things others don't, I'm Bad At Tagging, Mentions of the other 1D boys (obviously), So yeah..., Zayn's a thoughtful person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-28
Updated: 2014-09-28
Packaged: 2018-02-19 01:28:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2369387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pemdas_24/pseuds/Pemdas_24
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zayn didn't understand it. How could anyone think even for a moment that he was a better singer than his bandmates? Sure, he could hit some flashy high notes the others couldn't dream of matching because he has a good range, but the others could do things <em>he</em> couldn't copy either. It just didn't make sense to him how some people could forget things like that. Not see it or recognize it. Think his bandmates' voices were less special or important because of it. </p>
<p> It kind of bugs him a lot. </p>
<p>_________________</p>
<p> In other words, a fic where Zayn notices what some people don't when it comes to his bandmates' voices.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All Pieces of a Whole

**Author's Note:**

> **A/N: This _is_ a story for general audiences, but there are a couple of instances with some more vulgar or crude language. If things like that bother you too much, by all means, refrain from reading this story. Go ahead, I give you permission. :P**

Zayn didn't understand it. How could anyone think even for a moment that he was a better singer than his bandmates? Sure, he could hit some flashy high notes the others couldn't dream of matching because he has a good range, but the others could do things _he_ couldn't copy either. It just didn't make sense to him how some people could forget things like that. Not see it or recognize it. Think his bandmates' voices were less special or important because of it. 

Liam was a no-brainer, or at least he should be. He had so much control over his voice with a range that could also cover both low and high notes. He was consistent in all his performances in a way that Zayn especially admired. You could always rely on him to be steady, to know his part and perform it well. He cracked the least out of all of them and if he ever screwed up, it was the smallest of mistakes, almost unnoticeable. Not only that, but one of the reasons Liam could beatbox so well was because he was a master at rhythm and pitch. He picked up on notes and harmonies so fast sometimes that it was crazy and more often than not, he helped the other lads through their parts in practice. He just seemed to know exactly where he and everyone else was, or should be, in the songs even when he was only half paying attention. That came in handy for when the other half of his mind was focused on watching out for them as Daddy Direction. 

The other lads would ask him how he did it all, kept track of it without getting mixed up or breaking or going insane, and Li would just shrug and say he must have a good ear and memory for it or something because he really didn't know how to explain it. Sure, people weren't around to see them in practice or anything, see Liam be even more of a guiding force with his pseudo-fatherhood, but they should at least notice his performances. Well, some fans did. Some people believed Liam to be the best of all of them. But as much as Zayn recognized how amazing Liam was, he still couldn't say any of the lads was better than the other.

Harry was considered to be a contender by some of their fans for the top spot in vocals too. Despite what others might think, Harry's voice wasn't just special because of his deep and raspy quality. He had this talent for emoting, changing how he sang something in the tiniest of ways to get just the right amount of feeling to pull someone in. It was one of the reasons he was often deemed the front man and it was one of the things you couldn't copy. Harry could probably sing the phonebook and somehow make it sound heartbreaking. He could take the same line from a song and have a listener go through so many different emotions that it was ridiculous. 

Zayn heard Harry practicing sometimes, thinking no one could hear or maybe that no one would care because he sure as hell didn't seem to care if one of them heard him singing. It would be the same part, same lines and same words over and over, Harry rolling them off his tongue, testing it out, and trying to find the best way he could deliver it. Whenever Zayn thought for sure that Harry had found the right one, the best one, a way to sing the line that made a spark go off in his mind, Harry surprised him with something even better. It didn't make sense because they were the same words, the changes Harry made to his tone and delivery usually imperceptible and subtle. You didn't even know he'd changed it until you realized your reaction was different, that the feeling it created in you was different. Yet somehow, Harry was able to do it. It made Zayn angry to think that as much as Harry was adored and commended by some fans, others wrote him off as overrated because of his looks, personality, publicity, or whatever, and seemed to appreciate his voice less because of it. It wasn't fair. 

Niall wasn't appreciated as much as he should be either. He had this kind of purity in his voice, a clarity and warmth that could make you feel all fuzzy. Kind of like you were drunk off his voice rather than beer. Zayn first noticed it in his laughs before Niall had gone through some vocal lessons and became comfortable enough to let it out for real in his voice. It gave Zayn goosebumps and put a smile on his face the first time Niall sang that way, finally unlocked that potential he'd always had, the potential his laughs had promised yet only hinted at for all this time. He really couldn't be the only one to hear it either. Maybe it's just that people didn't take the time to really listen. 

It came across the best when Niall sang in near silence, light background music maybe because he really didn't need anything else. Perhaps, not even that. The way he delivered his solos for _Strong_ or _Little Things_ for example, it was when Zayn thought his voice shone through the most. It had such a soothing quality to it that he'd never get used to hearing. It wasn't something you came across very often. If Niall alone - personality, presence, charm, and laugh - wasn't enough to make Zayn feel better, his singing often did the trick. It was practically bottled comfort, happiness, rainbows, and pretty much everything good in the world. 

And Louis...he was often thought of as the poorest singer. It wasn't fair to him because Zayn knew the truth, had spent so long around Louis that he could now easily recognize his strengths. 

Zayn knew all the lads' voices extremely well, could probably identify each of them just by that if he ever went blind one day. But Louis especially, was so easy to pick out. He had a unique voice, distinctive. You heard it and you knew it was him. There could be a hundred famous singers in the music industry who all sounded the same, same tone, same delivery, and Zayn knew he was probably one of them. Unless the people listening to their songs had really good ears or were very big fans who listened to them on repeat just to make sure they always knew who was singing what, people thought most of them sounded the same. They would mix up him and Liam or Harry and sometimes even Niall, but hardly ever Louis. 

Not only that, but Louis's voice gave their group vocals an edge, something that was just different enough to focus on and cling to when the rest of their voices blended into each other. It was why Louis carried a lot of their choruses, acted as their constant to pull them all back to where they needed to be. He kept them from going astray after the other boys sang different notes around him. He was the band's constant, their beacon, the stupidly underrated lighthouse that guided all the lost ships back to shore at night and kept them from crashing into fucking cliff sides. If Zayn ever felt lost for even one second during a song, needed help remembering what note he was supposed to sing for the chorus, all he had to do was listen for Louis. And that was the easiest thing in the world to do. Listen for Louis singing the notes everyone else's harmonies were based off of, remember the steps up or down the note scale that he had to take, and do it. Even if the other lads didn't say it, Zayn knew they all listened for Louis just the same.

No one was the best because, depending on what you focused on, any one of them could be better than the others. None of them were the best because they all had something to contribute. Where one of them had a weakness, another had the strength to balance it out, and if any of them hadn't been a part of this band, if any one of them had not made it through and had been sent home, if Liam had gone through on his own the first time or never came back on the show, if Harry hadn't been old enough to audition that year, if Katy Perry had said no to Niall, if Louis hadn't been told to sing another song for his audition, if Zayn's own mother hadn't convinced him to go to his audition that morning when he started to chicken out or if he'd quit when he felt so useless at doing the choreography on the show, or if any one of them hadn't been brave enough to even attempt auditioning that day in the first place...who knows how far the band could have gone without them? 

One Direction would have been a puzzle with a missing piece. There was no doubt in Zayn's mind that they wouldn't have as much success as they did if one of them had been missing, one of their voices gone from their harmonies, if only four of them were kept in a group that season like Belle Amie or if another guy, some horrible douchebag maybe, was added to their group in the missing member's place instead. The missing piece to the puzzle would have easily been their band's downfall and maybe some people, some fans even, couldn't see that, but Zayn could. He could see it all too clearly. 

"I'm not any better than you guys. I'm not." All their voices were just as important, just as good in their own way and talent, each one of them necessary to make One Direction what it was. How could people not see that? 

It was to Li he'd confided this to, partly because Liam had been the first to notice Zayn was in another one of his moods and took it upon himself to see if he could help as Daddy Direction, and partly because Zayn knew Liam wouldn't joke about it and brush it off right away like the other three might. Sometimes Zayn was annoyed by Liam's sensibleness, but at least it made him take Zayn's words seriously the minute he heard them. He didn't need time like the others might have to listen and be serious because he knew that he had to without any convincing. 

The problem was that Liam thought Zayn was only saying this because he was doubting himself. Zayn sighed and hunched in on himself more in the little corner of the sofa he'd been sitting in when Liam obviously thought he needed a pep talk. He had leaned over to look him in the face and opened his mouth to start spewing out some compliments Zayn wasn't looking for. 

"I'm not saying it because I'm insecure, Li. I'm just saying it 'cuz it's true and it bugs me." 

Liam shook his head and placed a hand on his shoulder probably hoping to make Zayn see reason, at least listen to what he had to say. "You're amazing though, you know that right? The fans and everyone else are just giving you the recognition you deserve. You _do_ have a brilliant voice and you can hit these crazy high notes night after night on tour, and do these vocal tricks like those riffs...  
One Direction wouldn't be the same without you in it, Zayn." 

"No, One Direction wouldn't be the same without _any one of us_ in it." 

Zayn was expecting an argument as soon as he said it. He was expecting Liam to keep going on and on about how Zayn really was great and that it wasn't so bad if some people thought he was the best, but Liam just smiled at him then, all crinkly eyed and proud. Maybe now he finally understood exactly what Zayn had meant when he said he was no better than any of them. In the next moment, Liam's hand tightened on his shoulder in a squeeze before he let him go and tilted his head toward the door.

"Well, come on then. Rehearsal time."

**Author's Note:**

> I can't even tell you how much time I spent researching for this story... 
> 
> This is the product of looking up what people were saying about each of the boys' voices and seeing if they had some insights on things I or others might have missed. I also listened to so many of 1D's songs and the various solos on repeat in countless performances trying to focus on hearing things in detail and listen to the faint little vocals in the background that are sometimes damn near impossible to hear, let alone figure out who sang what because their voices are blending.
> 
> Anyway, I took these things and my observations and wrote this. I'm no expert. The best I can offer about music is that I've played piano for many years, had lessons for it, and was part of a few choirs which probably means I have a somewhat good voice and ear. So, yeah. I'm not saying this is 100% or even 70% or whatever % accurate in representing the boys' singing styles and talents. This is a fanfiction after all and everyone is entitled to their own opinion and interpretation.  
> That being said, I hope you enjoyed this anyway. ^^


End file.
